I've been noticing for a while now that since Alicia came on the scene as an artist and musician with her piano playing that suddenly almost every pop/r&b artist seems to be propped up behind a piano. Justin Timberlake, John Legend, Robin Thicke are a few examples. What do you all think? Is this just coincidence or do you think she has inspired some artists to play the piano? I'm surpised I haven't seen Bouncy do it yet.

dancerella said:

It's a coincidence

hmmmm...i don't know about that. i just can't think of any younger pop singers playing the piano before her. not talking about stvie wonder but artists more like from the 90's onwards.

if influential means playing 3 chord and calling oneself a piano player, I guess so....

I do like her lot and love her as a person, but the piano playing is not something that matters to me, I don't think she's exceptional at it though she is talented.

dancerella said:

Don't know about the others but John Legend puts Alicia to shame. He's at least gotten past passing off fingering exercises as actual songs.

"Influential" my ass

I am staying as far away from this thread as possible.

dancerella said:

That might be a bit of exaggeration, no? John Legend debuted as a singer and pianist and is better than Alicia from what I've seen. Robin's been playing piano among other instruments since he was a kid and debuted before Alicia so I doubt she influenced him. Now if Beysus, Ciara or Janet started playing piano, maybe you'd have something.
[Edited 2/26/09 6:26am]

A B S O L U T E L Y.....NOT

it's funny how much she's hated in here. I can understand people diss Beyonce and JT, but why Alicia?
She sincerely copies the music she likes. Be happy she's not just another "R'n'B" chic!

graecophilos said:

it seems like people are critisizing her for not being good enough/living up to the way she's been promoted.

personally, i'm not a big fan of her music but i do enjoy watching her live performances. that bet appearance with SWV/En Vogue in particular was killer.

she really killed it that night.

PricelessHo said:

which way has she been promotoed? I first heard of her in 2001 when she released Falling, and I thought it was a perfectly structured, well-written and performed song.
I was not into aqnything other than John Lennon then, so I didn't care for the album, but now I think the album has many great songs. She does great music, with an organic sound, meaning using real instruments.

She's no Jesus or anything, she won't bring "real music" back, but she does her best in writing proper songs with real melodies.

graecophilos said:

They're both glorified strippers. He's just gay.
[Edited 2/26/09 13:59pm]

These folks today are influenced by anyone who is dull. She's definately dull so yes, she is an influence.

graecophilos said:

i wouldn't say groundbreaking, but people seemed to have expected someone who's creative/inventive with their sound, but only got someone whose many of their songs turned out to be either too familiar sounding, or based on someone else's uncredited track.

there were many threads on the issue in here, maybe someone could help you dig them out.

What's next? Is Rihanna influential?

Alicia.... influential??

What about that blind guy?? Stevie something??? He sang 'Ribbon In The Sky' and 'Overjoyed' and Part 'Time Lover'.

dancerella said:

I think that's a stretch, BooBoo

I don't doubt that people like her & Cold Play influence what other type of artist gets signed "Let's get a rock band with a dorky singer who plays piano"

But let's not go overboard. They didn't exactly invent piano playing in pop music!

An artist need not be legendary to be influential. History will answer that question a long ways from now.

namepeace said:

With that in mind I do hope she influences young women to embrace an instrument of their choice and play!
[Edited 2/26/09 15:34pm]

namepeace said:

That is true. Look at T pain.

Harlepolis said:

ditto. the piano playing singer thing is age old. its more of bandwagon jupming than influence.

namepeace said:

I don't know if I fully agree with that. An artist like her can be and has been an infulence on little girls who might want to learn an instrument, but because of fear or other obstacles did not go through with learning. An artist like her, demonstrates that it can be done.

Unless I see more girls getting props for playing piano and writing songs that are categorized as "that old good soul music", then no she's not "influential".

puh-leeze...

shorttrini said:

That's not inconsistent to what I said, and you articulated the reason I said it.

She may not be Carole King or Aretha Franklin or Joni Mitchell or Sarah Vaughan, but if she does what you say she may be doing, she'll be an influential artist.

namepeace said:

I'm waiting on Gaby Wilson's debut album before I can make that influential statement come true about Ms. Keys...

Gaby's a prodigy who performs piano and says Alicia is her favorite. I guess I'm just waiting on the album. She plays more instruments tho and she's like 12 now or something.

Alicia does have co-writers and she probably sights dozens of old soul albums in order to find an unknown tune she could transform into a new song. But I like what she does. So many artists steal from others. The Beatles are the richest and most popular robbers ever!!!

Btw, whò do you think is her biggest influence?

dancerella said:

Vanessa Carlton came out during the same time and there was a latina who came out with the song "Angel" and she was playing piano too. Alicia just had the money behind her and the looks